


Meeting Set

by iwasnthere622



Series: Wolves vs Berserkers [23]
Category: Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Gangsters, Alternate Universe - Post-Apocalypse, Coding, Gang War, Gangs, Gen, Hacking, M/M, Post-Apocalypse, SOLDIER - Freeform, Strategy, Wolves, planning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-21
Updated: 2017-12-21
Packaged: 2019-02-17 19:50:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,612
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13084170
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iwasnthere622/pseuds/iwasnthere622
Summary: Seven days. Seven days since SOLDIER came to town, seven days since they murdered half the town, six days since the headquarters blew up, five days since Terra was shot, four days since they risked their lives to get any information, four days since Cloud had saved their asses, three days since he'd had more than a handful of snatches of minutes of sleep, three days since he'd had sex, two days since he'd even seen anyone except Ax, one day since he'd last eaten anything.And for all that, he had exactly nothing to show for it.They'd almost died, and it was for nothing. Nothing!





	Meeting Set

**Author's Note:**

> I'm really sorry for how long it took to post this update... 
> 
> Happy holidays!

Seven days. Seven days since SOLDIER came to town, seven days since they murdered half the town, six days since the headquarters blew up, five days since Terra was shot, four days since they risked their lives to get any information, four days since Cloud had saved their asses, three days since he'd had more than a handful of snatches of minutes of sleep, three days since he'd had sex, two days since he'd even seen anyone except Ax, one day since he'd last eaten anything.

And for all that, he had exactly _nothing_ to show for it.

They'd almost died, and it was for nothing. Nothing!

Rox shoved himself to an abrupt stand, startling Ax - who'd been talking about something crazy, like taking a break - into silence.

"Rox?" Ax asked hesitantly, worried the pressure was cracking him, wishing he'd eat something and sleep more than twenty minutes at a time, not liking the pale sallow of his skin or the prominent dark circles beneath his eyes.

"I can't do this anymore," Rox announced.

"Rox, you'll get it, you just need to rest and stop pushing yourself so hard, let your brain shut down for a while and come back to it fresh," Ax tried to soothe, reaching out to rest a hand on his boyfriend's shoulder.

"No, you don't understand - I can't do this!" Rox said, shrugging Ax's hand off and heading out of the room.

"Rox..." Ax sighed, trailing after him.

Rox was determined, ignoring everyone he passed until he found Barret and Tifa. "I can't do it," he announced.

Barret studied him, raising an eyebrow at Ax for letting their hacker look this bad. "Not running on steam, you can't," he agreed.

Tifa frowned. "Did the bug not work?" she asked, only having a limited knolwedge of how Rox's hacking actually worked.

Rox shook his head, making a frustrated noise. "The bug worked. But I. Can't. Do. It."

By now everyone was watching Rox as if he was having a mental breakdown, and Tifa sighed, knowing she'd pushed him and feeling guilty for apparently pushing him over the edge.

"Okay. That's okay, you need to take a break anway, we can--" she cut off when Rox interruprted her.

"No," Rox said sharply, frustrated, tugging at his hair. "You don't _understand_ , I can't do it! The bug got information that's basically locked files, their network was layered, way more than ours, than I've ever seen, it's why remoting didn't work, you need to plug in to get anything, the backdoor bug got, like, a fraction of the information and it's all coded and not in a way Zex or anyone can break, it's locked and without the key completely useless. I can't do it!"

Tifa frowned, watching Ax tug Rox into a hug to try to calm him down, the blonde vibrating in place. "You can't do it because you're missing the key?" she confirmed.

Rox relaxed a little, nodding.

"Can we steal it?" Zack asked, wondering if they should send a team out again, though it hadn't exactly gone smoothly last time...

Rox shook his head. "I don't think so," he said slowly. "The bug got everything it could, but all it could find were the files, not the key. I think they have a separate sever with the key files that they must remotely access when they need to input or export data."

"Key files? As in, more than one?" Cid asked, squinting at Rox as if he was speaking a language he didn't understand, which was actually pretty impressive (for Rox, not for Cid).

Rox nodded wearily. "Think so, based on the firewall designs. Individual keys for individual file blocks. It's the perfect set up."

"And another bug can't get those?" Zack pressed, never having found something that couldn't be stolen.

Rox sighed. "Eventually? Maybe? Without knowing where to look, it'd be random chance with another bug, or I'd have to, like, camp out on the mayor's doorstep for about... 12 hours, to find it manually."

Ax tightened his hold on Rox because that Was Not Happening.

"Okay," Tifa said, cutting off anyone else from speaking up. "You did a good job, Roxas. Get some rest." She nodded at Ax, who started steering Rox from the room, determined to force feed him a sandwich and then put him to bed.

"What do we do now?" Kairi asked, looking around at everyone. They just didn't have the manpower to challenge SOLDIER, and now they had no information to plan any kind of infiltration with, either.

Tifa rubbed at her head, a headache forming. She didn't want to admit defeat, but maybe they should leave while they were still all alive...

"We should contact the Berserkers," Zack said into the silence, continuing when everyone stared at him. "They have to be planning a way to oust SOLDIER, too, right? They're always more physical, maybe they have the power to at least get close enough to get the keys."

Tifa frowned. "Maybe they already have..." she said thoughtfully.

Barret shook his head. "Honey, if Reno had SOLDIER by the balls, he'd be singing it from the rooftops."

Tifa snorted but agreed with that point. So. For whatever reason, the Berserkers couldn't get through, either.

"Maybe," Tifa said slowly, thinking out loud. "Maybe they can't get the data. Zack's right, Reno's always favored brawn to brains, or at least street smarts to gadget smarts. Maybe they get close enough physically, but the information can't be accessed on their end."

Barret nodded. "We need their muscle, and they need Rox."

Zack grinned. "Yeah, everyone knows Zex and their coder are pretty much tied cause they use each others plays too often. But Rox and their hacker, they haven't ever targeted the same thing, not like our thieves do."

Tifa nodded. "You're right, Zack. We could use them... but how do we get word to them? I'm sure they're in a shoot first, ask quetions later mood." She knew she would shoot anybody fool enough to walk up to their door right now if she didn't know them.

Zack glanced at Cloud. "Leave that to me," he said.

Cloud narrowed his eyes. Zack...

Tifa raised an eyebrow, leveling him a look.

"I can get them a message, set a meeting. In the tunnels," Zack explained.

"You can get messages to the Berserkers?" Barret asked skeptically.

"I know a guy," Zack hedged, not wanting to out Cloud.

"What guy?" Cid asked, not trusting this.

"A friend," Zack said, imploring Tifa with his puppy eyes. "I can do it, would I lie?"

Tifa sighed. "It's not you we're distrustful of, Zack."

Cloud closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. "It's me, I'm the friend. I'll set the meet with Reno."

Everyone turned to stare at Cloud.

"Cloudy..." Zack said, knowing the thief hadn't wanted them to know, but desperate times and all that.

"You're not...?" Kairi squinted at him.

"What?" Cloud asked.

"A traitor," Cid said bluntly.

"No!" Cloud said, face heating up as everyone stared at him. "No, I'm a Wolf!"

"Then how--"

"I... I have a friend. In the Berserkers. We... dated. A bit," Cloud said, feeling his face heat up even more.

"You dated a Berserker?!" Olette exclaimed, even more impressed with Cloud, who knew the kid had such guts?!

"Yeah," Cloud siad, one hand rubbing at the back of his neck, shuffling his feet in embarrassment.

"Who broke it off?" Olette pressed. "Who is it? C'mon, details!"

"A-Anyway, I can get a message to him, set a meeting," Cloud said to Tifa, trying to ignore the squeals from Olette ("HIM!?").

Tifa studied Cloud, watching him squirm in embarrassment. She didn't like this, but it'd obviously been going on for a while, and Zack knew about it, so Cloud had at least been a little bit careful. Still.

"You're sure he didn't use you for information?" she asked gently.

"What? No! Lee-He's not like that, we didn't talk business at all," Cloud promised.

"They didn't talk much at all," Zack teased.

"Zack!" Cloud protested, wishing the floor would swallow him whole.

"All right," Tifa said, taking his word and trusting him. "Please set up a meeting for tonight, midnight, at the border in the tunnels."

Cloud nodded, hurrying to leave the room and go to his own to send Leon the message.

"Who is it, who is it?" Olette demanded of Zack.

"I don't know, he never told me," Zack grinned.

Olette pouted, Fang patting her on the back. "Then how did you know?"

"Caught them making out," Zack confessed. "But I couldn't see them all that well, just Cloud. Could tell it was a guy and that's about it."

"Can we trust an alliance with Reno?" Barret asked, shifting the conversation focus.

"We don't have much choice. He must want SOLDIER gone just as much as us - the enemy of my enemy is my friend," Tifa said.

Cloud pushed back into the room. "Reno'll be there, he's bringing three with him so you should, too," he told Tifa.

Everyone started clammering at that, all wanting to go.

Tifa whistled, waiting for everyone to calm down. Three, hm. "Barret," she smiled at him. "Zack. And Cloud," she decided, smiling a little at all the grumbles that caused, especially as everyone started teasing Cloud that this meeting was not the time for making out with his ex-boyfriend, the poor boy turning bright red again.

"All guys, huh?" Olette pouted, having wanted to go and meet this boy of Cloud's.

"Well, we have muscle, too," Tifa said, winking at her and Fang.

Cloud buried his face. This was going to be a long night...


End file.
